Embedded systems technology has become an important aspect of our daily life, starting with remote control devices for TV sets up to automotive engine control and navigation systems. Embedded systems development must take into account design constraints on size, weight, power consumption and other cost related parameters.
The performance benefits of adopting Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architectures in embedded systems are well recognized in the art. RISC offer efficient and small cores. In comparison to Complete Instruction Set Computers (CISC), the RISCs suffers from relatively large instruction sizes and need therefore more memory space for the software program.
The program, and generally any data structure, should be stored with a high code density. This can be achieved, for example, by off-line compressing and decompressing before execution. However, such an approach requires additional memory space for permanently or temporarily storing expanded instructions (e.g., a cache). Despite falling prices for some kind of memory (e.g., disks), memory space is still precious in embedded or similar systems.
There is a technical task to develop storing and retrieving methods which substantially do not require additional space. The present invention seeks to provide methods and computer systems which mitigate or avoid these and other disadvantages and limitations of the prior art.